Fill multiple fields with the same information

[ben_jamin]

Hello,
I am working on normalizing a pretty messy database and I am running into a problem. The database needs to have columns for 17 individual connectors. These fields are populated from another table containing all of the possible connectors that could be used and a description of them. I need to set up a query that contains the 17 connector fields as well a field with the description of each connector. Is it possible to have this query auto populate the description fields from the table that contains the connectors. I have attached a picture below in hope that it will help explain what I am trying to do. Each pin has a label that has to be manually filled and a pin name that has to be chosen from another table. I want to have the pin description fields auto populate to match the selected pin names. I can achieve this through the use of an if statement but that will cause issues if any of the information needs to be changed or if I need to add another pin type later. I hope there is a way to make this work using relationships. Thank you for the help.

[pbaldy]

If you're going to normalize the db, you won't have 17 sets of fields.

Once that's done, you can use this for the description:

BaldyWeb - Autofill

[ben_jamin]

The problem is that for the query I need the 17 sets of fields because they are needed in a mail merge we do to create datasheets. I need to show pin names 1-17 and a description that matches each pin so that a table can be filled in a mail merge that contains the name and label of each pin as well as a description about them. Thoughts?

[pbaldy]

You should do what you're comfortable with, I'm just pointing out that you won't have a normalized db. I'd normalize it, which would include a "PinNumber" field, which should let me punch out data to a mail merge with the pins identified. This reinforces my view: "if I need to add another pin type later", because adding an 18th set of fields would make you have to redesign everything. That's a sure sign of a normalization problem.

[ben_jamin]

I took a different approach that seems to have worked. I completely get what you are saying about the normalization problem so we set up groups with specific pin settings. This allows us to label each part as a group and then have a separate table with the pin types and description. Thanks for the help and advice.